This weblog discusses the finer points of videogame character costumes.
Philosophy and rules:
1) The ideal costume looks cool, but also has a soul.
2) Overall aesthetics of the game also come into play.
3) A great costume can make a good game great or a bad game warrant a rental.
4) Unlockable outfits must be worth the trouble of obtaining it and playing through the game multiple times.
5) Cosplay is now in the mix!

Thursday, May 19, 2005

With the thousands of games on display at E3, I found one that isn't there for obvious reasons. Battle Raper 2 is the follow up to Illusion's controversial Japan-only PC fighting game and you can view this "action" packed movie specially formatted for play on your PSP. Just hit the 26MB link, extract the file and dump it on your PSP. The last bits of the movie are ABSOLUTELY NOT FOR CHILDREN. The amount of selectable and unlockable costumes is immense and they show real-time damage (meaning they tear off) during fights. Snazzy.

There's little chance I would ever play the game since it would not please my wife. Plus it costs something like $80-90 not including shipping, so the PSP movie will fill in just fine.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Regardless of whether the PlayStation 3 footage is pre-rendered CG or real time, the thing I really love about Killzone is the art direction. You can get an immediate feel for the world just by looking at the uniforms of your fellow soldiers and enemies, and what few vehicles we actually see. I felt the same way about the PlayStation 2 version although I have yet to finish it. I really hate to bring up another Halo vs. Killzone comparison, but this time it’s in the latter’s favor. As much as I love Halo, it’s really hard to get a feel for what it would be like to live in the era of Master Chief. It’s not because it’s sci-fi set waaaaaay into the future since plenty of other genre material have created perfectly believable worlds. There’s just some architecture and design consistency that’s missing from the Halo series that Killzone just nails.